Ud 8.1
PTS: Ud 80
Nibbāna Sutta: Unbinding (1)
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Alternate translation: Ireland
Alternate format: [PDF icon]

I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Sāvatthī at Jeta's Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's monastery. And on that occasion the Blessed One was instructing, urging, rousing, & encouraging the monks with Dhamma-talk concerned with unbinding. The monks — receptive, attentive, focusing their entire awareness, lending ear — listened to the Dhamma.

Then, on realizing the significance of that, the Blessed One on that occasion exclaimed:

There is that dimension, monks, where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither dimension of the infinitude of space, nor dimension of the infinitude of consciousness, nor dimension of nothingness, nor dimension of neither perception nor non-perception; neither this world, nor the next world, nor sun, nor moon. And there, I say, there is neither coming, nor going, nor staying; neither passing away nor arising: unestablished,[1] unevolving, without support [mental object].[2] This, just this, is the end of stress.

Note

1.
On unestablished consciousness, see SN 22.87 and the discussion in The Paradox of Becoming, chapter 7.
2.
See SN 22.53.
See also: DN 11; MN 49; SN 35.117; Ud 8.2; Ud 8.3; Ud 8.4.